Odds to win the 2026 Stanley Cup are already up at sportsbooks, and there is disagreement in the betting market regarding which team should be the favorite heading into the offseason.

Depending on what sportsbook you look at, the two-time defending champion Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes or Colorado Avalanche are next season’s Stanley Cup favorites.

The Panthers finished off the Oilers 5-1 in Game 6 on Tuesday night to lift the Cup for a second straight season. But oddsmakers aren’t convinced Florida is the clear-cut favorite to make it three in a row.

At ESPN BET, the Panthers, Oilers and Avs were co-favorites, each listed at +700 as of Tuesday. Colorado had been the outright favorite last week at +650, before the sportsbook tweaked the Avs’ odds to bring them in line with Florida and Edmonton.

“There’s a lot more questions around the Panthers and Oilers than the Avalanche, who are set to return a majority of their roster and have the benefit of a longer offseason,” Adrian Horton, trading director for ESPN BET, said. “Colorado should also enter next season healthy and fresh, while Florida and Edmonton have accumulated wear and tear from consecutive deep playoff runs.”

DraftKings had the Oilers as next season’s favorites, while FanDuel had the Hurricanes as the favorites Tuesday, ahead of Game 6.

Horton pointed to questions about what the Panthers’ roster will look like after free agency, and he wondered about the toll losing back-to-back Stanley Cups will have on the Oilers.

“The Avs, on the other hand, have 19 out of 23 roster spots under contract, including a healthy Gabriel Landeskog and two of the best players in the world in Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon,” Horton said.

The Hurricanes (+800) and Dallas Stars (+900) round out the top-tier of teams in ESPN BET’s odds to win the 2026 Stanley Cup.

The Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks are the biggest long shots entering the offseason, both listed at 500-1.

Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the most valuable player in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Bennett was awarded the distinction after Florida defeated Edmonton 5-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday night. It was the Panthers’ second consecutive Cup victory, and Bennett played an integral role in helping Florida achieve the feat.

The veteran led the NHL playoff field in goals scored (15) and was tied for second among Panthers in points (22) through 23 games, which included five goals and six points in the Final. Bennett wasn’t only Florida’s best offensive player though; he also delivered a suffocating defensive performance and furious forechecking effort that made Florida formidable in each round of the postseason.

“I always believed in myself,” said Bennett, who played eight seasons in Calgary before being traded to the Panthers in 2021. “I always knew I could be more than I was when I first got traded. But it’s all a dream I guess until you actually do it. I don’t think I knew how difficult it would be and how much work it would take. My whole life switched when I got traded here, and super grateful to be here. I don’t take that for granted.”

The 28-year-old’s tenacity and consistency combined to make Bennett a standout every game but especially in the Final, where he elevated the Panthers at both ends of the ice to stifle the Oilers’ attack and lift the Panthers to a second straight title.

The career-best showing couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for Bennett. The center is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and is expected to have several suitors if he doesn’t re-sign with the Panthers.

“For Sam Bennett to be here today with this group of guys, to have the success he’s had, there’s a lot of heaviness that he had on the road,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “There’s a lot of work that had to go into it. He just didn’t show up here and say, ‘OK, feed me and I’ll show you how good I am.’ There’s more to it.”

SUNRISE, Fla. — After 14 years, Brad Marchand was reunited with the Stanley Cup. He lifted and kissed the silver chalice moments after the Florida Panthers won Game 6 against the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1, closing out their series and capturing the Cup for a second straight season on Tuesday night.

“It feels completely different. I have so much more respect and appreciation for how difficult it was to get here, how hard it is and the amount of things that need to go right to win. Everything has to line up perfectly,” said Marchand, who won the Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011. “My situation’s a perfect example of that. I shouldn’t have been here, but it worked out.”

Marchand, 37, was a driving force behind the Panthers’ Stanley Cup win. He had 10 goals and 10 assists in 23 games, skating a plus-17 with linemates Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen. While he didn’t score in Game 6, Marchand had 6 goals in 6 games in the Stanley Cup Final with two game-winning goals.

“He’s been a big-game player his whole career. In 2011, he was arguably our best player,” said Shawn Thornton, Marchand’s teammate on the Bruins who is now a business executive for the Panthers. “I wasn’t surprised to see the magic he was making. I don’t think the age thing is in his head.”

Marchand spent 16 NHL seasons with the Bruins until a contract extension impasse led to an NHL trade deadline move to the Panthers. It was a surreal moment for Marchand and the Panthers, as Florida had eliminated the Bruins from the 2023 and 2024 playoffs. Last postseason, Panthers center Sam Bennett injured Marchand with a sucker punch. On Tuesday night, the skated the Stanley Cup as teammates.

“As soon as he got traded here, he chirped me in the group chat instantly for our history and the last playoffs,” recalled Bennett, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP.

“What he’s meant to this team … I truly don’t think we win a Stanley Cup without him. His leadership, his will to win, it’s inspiring. I was telling him before every game, ‘We’re going to follow you.’ And we did. He was a dog every night. He for sure could have won this trophy,” Bennett said. “He’s a better player and person than I ever knew and I’m grateful that I got to play with him.”

Marchand said going from nemesis to teammate is a tribute to the chemistry of the Panthers.

“It just shows you that once you become part of a group and you get into this environment … when you’re playing on the same team with each other, you create such an incredible bond,” he said. “They already had an unbelievable culture that the new guys were able to kind of come into and just buy in and enjoy it and embrace it. They made it very easy.”

Florida general manager Bill Zito said Marchand also did his part to build team chemistry.

“I’ve been telling everyone that as much as he did on the ice, it’s what he did in the room that matters,” he said. “If you came in this morning, you wouldn’t have known who the new guy was. That says as much about who he is as a teammate and a hockey player as his extraordinary performance.”

For example, the Panthers started a tradition in the Stanley Cup Playoffs where they would shoot the plastic rats fans tossed on the ice after victories – a decades-long tradition for the team – at Marchand as they left for the dressing room. Even as Florida celebrated the Stanley Cup win, the tradition continued: Forward Sam Reinhart, who scored four goals in the victory, reached down and threw a rat at Marchand as he was kissing the Cup.

“It still felt heavy, that’s for sure,” said Marchand of the Cup. “It’s pretty incredible to do it here at home. It’s so many people here that I love and that had been a huge impact on being part of this, so it’s an incredible feeling.”

Marchand now faces an uncertain future as an unrestricted free agent this offseason. But after the best playoff series of his career in the Stanley Cup Final, he’ll have plenty of suitors.

Florida closed out the Oilers with two straight wins, both of them defined by early offensive and consistently good defense.

The Panthers took the lead just 4:36 into the first period on an incredible individual effort from Reinhart. Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard passed the puck right to Reinhart just outside of the Edmonton zone. Reinhart skated into the zone, turned defenseman Mattias Ekholm inside out and beat goalie Stuart Skinner while falling down for his 8th goal of the playoffs. Skinner had returned as the starter after being benched in Game 5.

It would remain that way through the rest of the first period, which pitted two nervous teams against each other on specious ice, until Matthew Tkachuk scored his 8th of the playoffs. Using a perfect screen from Lundell in front of Skinner, Tkachuk’s shot from between the circles sailed into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.

It continued a string of early dominance for the Panthers in the series. Florida scored at least 2 goals in the first period of all six games of the series and outscored the Oilers 9-0 in the last four games of the series.

The Panthers relied on goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky for 10 saves in the second period, who had help in the zone when he needed it. Then Reinhart struck again at 17:31 of the second period, as Aleksander Barkov turned a lackadaisical rebound by Skinner into a shot that banked off Reinhart and into the net for a 3-0 lead.

Reinhart completed his hat trick at 13:26 of the third period with an empty-net goal. Just 1:29 later, he scored his fourth goal of the game into another empty Edmonton net, giving him 11 goals on the postseason.

As the seconds ticked down, the Panthers began jumping over the boards to begin their celebration. The Panthers first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions by beating the same team in both years since the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Bruins in the 1977 and 1978.

It was their third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final. Does that make them a dynasty?

“Hell, yeah,” Tkachuk said. “Absolutely.”